The UN has banned smoking at “all United Nations indoors premises, including regional and country offices throughout the United Nations system”, and that tobacco sales be banned at “all United Nations premises”. WHO

About 300 people have died in Zimbabwe in recent weeks in a cholera outbreak which has hit about 6,000 people. The World Health Organization reports that the outbreak is likely to continue as the water and sanitation situation is worsening, with severe shortages of potable water, sewage and waste disposal problems reported in most of the populated areas. BBC

Two years after the US federal government recommended that patients in emergency rooms and doctors’ offices be routinely tested for HIV, the advice is generally not being followed, according to a large number of studies presented this week at a conference in Arlington. Washington Post

Uganda‘s health ministry has began the drafting the national Medical Male Circumcision (MMC) policy for HIV prevention. The policy is as a result clinical trials carried out in Uganda in 2005 and 2007 which found that male circumcision reduced the risk of HIV by 60%. New Vision